Politics
Russian troops widen their offensive across Ukraine
With reviews of a large-scale navy convoy positioning itself right into a firing posture round Kyiv, Russian forces widened their offensive in Ukraine on Friday, attacking extra main cities whereas additionally pounding targets farther from the entrance line.
The intensified assault on the bottom got here whilst the USA considerably improbably insisted that diplomacy nonetheless had a task within the battle and as Moscow pressed its propaganda conflict on the United Nations.
Early Friday, Russian warplanes carried out three airstrikes on Dnipro — Ukraine’s fourth-largest metropolis, about 240 miles southeast of Kyiv — hitting a kindergarten, an condo constructing and a two-story shoe manufacturing unit, in response to Ukraine’s State Emergency Service. The manufacturing unit was nonetheless burning greater than two hours after the assault, and at the very least one particular person was killed, the emergency service stated.
These strikes adopted a bombing run focusing on the Lutsk navy airfield within the nation’s northwest, the Interfax-Ukraine information company stated, quoting Yuriy Pohulyaiko, head of the navy administration within the space. Pohulyaiko stated two troopers have been killed and 6 others wounded.
Airstrikes additionally hit the airport in Ivano-Frankivsk in western Ukraine, stated Mayor Ruslan Martsynkiv.
“The enemy has struck at Frankivsk. There have been explosions at our airport. Stay calm, the related companies are working,” Martsynkiv wrote on his official Fb web page, urging residents to depart the world and to not unfold pictures and movies of the explosions.
And Russian forces continued their intense bombardment of the southeastern metropolis of Mariupol on Ukraine’s Black Coastline, Mayor Vadym Boichenko stated in a video message on Fb. Mariupol was the location of the shelling and destruction earlier this week of a maternity hospital, prompting some Western officers, together with Vice President Kamala Harris, to name for a conflict crimes investigation.
“Two days of hell, Armageddon,” Boichenko stated, including that the Russians have been utilizing Grad rockets and artillery on residential areas. “Each half-hour, airplanes fly over the town of Mariupol, assault residential areas, kill the civilian inhabitants — the aged, girls, kids.”
Efforts to ascertain a humanitarian hall to permit secure passage out for Mariupol’s civilians have repeatedly failed due to Russian fireplace, Ukraine says.
Regardless of the lethal threat of doing so, greater than 2.5 million Ukrainians have now fled their nation, the U.N. stated. Most have gone to Poland, which has thus far welcomed them but in addition is pleading for worldwide support in accommodating and processing them.
The principle prize for Russia stays the capital, Kyiv, the place satellite tv for pc images confirmed {that a} huge armored convoy, lengthy stalled north of the town, has begun to separate up and transfer into villages and forests, shifting artillery into firing positions.
Russian troops appeared Friday to be locking down a part of the expanse of villages and cities northeast of Kyiv. Within the city of Pryluky, about 80 miles east of Kyiv and as soon as dwelling to Ukraine’s largest airfield within the Soviet period, Ukrainian troopers laid out mines on the street heading north out of the town. Russian troops, they stated, have been a scant 10 miles north of the city and 30 miles to the west, on the principle freeway resulting in Kyiv.
The final employees stated Russian troops had been halted of their efforts to take the northern metropolis of Chernihiv by Ukraine’s re-capture of the city of Baklanova Muraviika, which Russian troops may use as a staging submit to maneuver towards Kyiv.
Russian forces are additionally blockading Kharkiv, the nation’s second-largest metropolis, and pushing their offensive within the south round Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhia and Kryvyi Rih, the hometown of Ukraine’s defiant, besieged President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Russian Protection Minister Sergei Shoigu stated Friday that hundreds of “volunteers” from everywhere in the world, particularly the Center East, have requested to affix the combat towards Ukraine. Many are believed to be arriving from Syria, the place Moscow lengthy supported the brutal and finally profitable marketing campaign of President Bashar Assad to conquer home opposition in addition to the Islamic State terror group.
“We take into account it proper to reply positively to [the] requests, particularly since these requests are usually not for cash, however on the true need of those individuals,” Shoigu stated at a gathering of the Russian Safety Council, in response to the Russian state information company RIA Novosti.
Russia additionally requested and was granted a gathering later Friday on the U.N. Safety Council to debate what it claims are “the navy organic actions of the U.S. on the territory of Ukraine.” U.S. diplomats scoffed on the transfer, saying it was an try and “gaslight the world.”
“That is precisely the form of false flag effort we’ve got warned Russia may provoke to justify a organic or chemical weapons assault,” Olivia Dalton, spokesperson for the U.S. delegation on the U.N., stated.
The U.S. has flatly rejected Russian accusations that Ukraine is operating chemical and organic labs with U.S. help.
In Moscow, the federal government of Russian President Vladimir Putin once more floated the thought of negotiations with Ukraine regardless of a number of rounds of talks thus far reaching subsequent to nothing. Ukraine insists that Russia will settle for nothing lower than its give up.
“Nobody guidelines out the opportunity of a gathering between Putin and Zelensky,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated Friday.
On the identical time, Peskov stated that “first, delegations and ministers have to do their a part of the work to make it possible for the presidents don’t meet only for the sake of the method and a dialog however maintain a gathering to realize outcomes.”
However the U.S. was extremely skeptical. State Division spokesman Ned Value stated Russia thus far is participating in a “pretense of diplomacy” with no real curiosity in negotiating.
“Putin may select to chop his losses, extricate himself from this strategic morass by looking for to barter in good religion a diplomatic settlement with Ukraine,” Value stated. As a substitute, “the Kremlin continues to unfold outright lies,” akin to claiming the bombing of the maternity hospital was “pretend information.“
“That is from a authorities that’s now utilizing many measures to cover the reality from its personal individuals,” Value stated.
Harris, who wrapped up a visit to Warsaw on Friday, pledged a further $53 million in humanitarian support for Ukrainian refugees in Poland. She met with a small group of refugees Thursday.
“We’re right here to help you,” she informed the group. “And you aren’t alone. And I do know there’s a lot concerning the expertise that you just’ve had that has made you’re feeling alone.”
Polish President Andrzej Duda warned Harris that a world “refugee disaster” was quickly going to blow up right into a “refugee catastrophe.”
And one other looming catastrophe may hit meals provides worldwide as a result of each Ukraine and Russia are among the many planet’s high exporters of grain, fertilizer and different agricultural commodities, the U.N.’s Meals and Agriculture Group stated. The FAO initiatives that, if the conflict continues, the variety of undernourished individuals on the planet will improve by as much as 13 million individuals by 2023.
Bulos reported from Kyiv and Wilkinson from Washington. Noah Bierman in Warsaw contributed.
Politics
Appeals court rules Texas has right to build razor wire border wall to deter illegal immigration: 'Huge win'
A federal appeals court on Wednesday ruled that Texas has the right to build a razor wire border wall to deter illegal immigration into the Lone Star State.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced the ruling on X, saying President Biden was “wrong to cut our razor wire.”
“We continue adding more razor wire border barrier,” the Republican leader wrote.
Wednesday’s 2-1 decision by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals clears the way for Texas to pursue a lawsuit accusing the Biden administration of trespassing without having to remove the fencing.
TRUMP SAYS MEXICO WILL STOP FLOW OF MIGRANTS AFTER SPEAKING WITH MEXICAN PRESIDENT FOLLOWING TARIFF THREATS
It also reversed a federal judge’s November 2023 refusal to grant a preliminary injunction to Texas as the state resisted federal efforts to remove fencing along the Rio Grande in the vicinity of Eagle Pass, Texas.
Circuit Judge Kyle Duncan, a Trump appointee during the president-elect’s first term, wrote for Wednesday’s majority that Texas was trying only to safeguard its own property, not “regulate” U.S. Border Patrol, and was likely to succeed in its trespass claims.
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Duncan said the federal government waived its sovereign immunity and rejected its concerns that a ruling by Texas would impede the enforcement of immigration law and undermine the government’s relationship with Mexico.
He said the public interest “supports clear protections for property rights from government intrusion and control” and ensuring that federal immigration law enforcement does not “unnecessarily intrude into the rights of countless property owners.”
Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton called the ruling a “huge win for Texas.”
“The Biden Administration has been enjoined from damaging, destroying, or otherwise interfering with Texas’s border fencing,” Paxton wrote in a post on X. “We sued immediately when the federal government was observed destroying fences to let illegal aliens enter, and we’ve fought every step of the way for Texas sovereignty and security.”
The White House has been locked in legal battles with Texas and other states that have tried to deter illegal immigration.
In May, the full 5th Circuit heard arguments in a separate case between Texas and the White House over whether the state can keep a 1,000-foot floating barrier on the Rio Grande.
The appeals court is also reviewing a judge’s order blocking a Texas law that would allow state officials to arrest, prosecute and order the removal of people in the country illegally.
Politics
Rep. Katie Porter obtains temporary restraining order against ex-boyfriend on harassment allegations
U.S. Rep. Katie Porter (D-Irvine) secured a temporary restraining order Tuesday against a former boyfriend, saying in dozens of pages of court filings that he had bombarded her, as well as her family and colleagues, with hundreds of messages that she described as “persistent abuse and harassment.”
Porter, 50, alleged in a filing with Orange County Superior Court that her ex-boyfriend Julian Willis, 55, was contacting her and her family with such frequency that she had a “significant fear” for her “personal safety and emotional well-being.”
Judge Stephen T. Hicklin signed a restraining order Tuesday barring Willis from communicating with Porter and her children until a mid-December court hearing. He also barred Willis from communicating about Porter with her current and former colleagues.
In the court filing, Porter said that Willis had been hospitalized twice since late 2022 on involuntary psychiatric holds and had a history of abusing prescription painkillers and other drugs.
She said in a statement to The Times that Willis’ mental health and struggles with addiction seemed to have gotten worse since she asked him in August to move out of her Irvine home. She said she sought the court order after his threats to her family and colleagues “escalated in both their frequency and intensity.”
“I sincerely hope he gets the help he needs,” Porter said.
Willis declined to comment. He will have an opportunity to file a legal response to the temporary restraining order and challenge Porter’s allegations.
Porter is leaving the House of Representatives in January after losing in California’s U.S. Senate primary in March. She has been discussed as a front-runner in the 2026 governor’s race in California after Gov. Gavin Newsom is termed out, but has not said whether she will launch a campaign.
The 53-page court filing, first reported by Politico, included 22 pages of emails, text messages and other communications among Porter, family members and colleagues who had received messages from Willis, as well as messages that Willis sent to Porter’s attorney and to her political mentor Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
The filing also included messages between herself and Willis’ siblings as they discussed trying to help him during his psychiatric holds and while he was staying in a sober-living facility.
Porter said that since she ordered Willis to move out, he had sent her more than 1,000 text messages and emails, including texting her 82 times in one 24-hour period in September, and 55 times on Nov. 12 before she blocked his number.
Porter said in the filing that her ex-boyfriend had “already contacted at least three reporters to disseminate false and damaging information” about her and her children, which she said “poses a serious risk to [her] career and personal reputation.”
The filing includes an email that Porter said Willis sent to her attorney late Monday, in which Willis said he had visited Porter’s son at college in Iowa and told him that he would “bring the hammer down on Katie and smash her and her life into a million pieces.”
Another screenshot shows Willis telling Porter’s attorney that he would file a complaint about Porter, who has children ages 12 and 16, with child protective services.
One of Porter’s congressional staff members received a text message from Willis saying he would “punish the f—” out of him if he did not agree to “cooperate” with a New York Times reporter and Willis’ attorneys, according to a screenshot included in the court document.
Willis previously made the news in 2021, when he was arrested after a fight that broke out at a Porter town hall at a park in Irvine.
Times staff writer Christopher Goffard contributed to this report.
Politics
Homan taking death threats against him ‘more seriously’ after Trump officials targeted with violent threats
Incoming Trump border czar Tom Homan reacted to news of death threats against Trump nominees on Wednesday and said he now takes the death threats he has previously received seriously.
“I have not taken this serious up to this point,” Homan told Fox News anchor Gillian Turner on “The Story” on Wednesday, referring to previous death threats made against him and his family.
“Now that I know what’s happened in the last 24 hours. I will take it a little more serious. But look, I’ve been dealing with this. When I was the ICE director in the first administration, I had numerous death threats. I had a security detail with me all the time. Even after I retired, death threats continued and even after I retired as the ICE Director. I had U.S. Marshals protection for a long time to protect me and my family.”
Homan explained that what “doesn’t help” the situation is the “negative press” around Trump.
HARRIS NEVER LED TRUMP, INTERNAL POLLS SHOWED — BUT DNC OFFICIALS WERE KEPT IN THE DARK
“I’m not in the cabinet, but, you know, I’ve read numerous hit pieces. I mean, you know, I’m a racist and, you know, I’m the father of family separation, all this other stuff. So the hate media doesn’t help at all because there are some nuts out there. They’ll take advantage. So that doesn’t help.”
Homan’s comments come shortly after Fox News Digital first reported that nearly a dozen of President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees and other appointees tapped for the incoming administration were targeted Tuesday night with “violent, unAmerican threats to their lives and those who live with them,” prompting a “swift” law enforcement response.
ARMED FELON ARRESTED FOR THREATENING TO KILL TRUMP ATTENDED RALLY WEEKS AFTER BUTLER ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT
The “attacks ranged from bomb threats to ‘swatting,’” according to Trump-Vance transition spokeswoman and incoming White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
“Last night and this morning, several of President Trump’s Cabinet nominees and administration appointees were targeted in violent, unAmerican threats to their lives and those who live with them,” she told Fox News Digital on Wednesday. “In response, law enforcement acted quickly to ensure the safety of those who were targeted. President Trump and the entire Transition team are grateful for their swift action.”
Sources told Fox News Digital that John Ratcliffe, the nominee to be CIA director, Pete Hegseth, the nominee for secretary of defense, and Rep. Elise Stefanik, the nominee for UN ambassador, were among those targeted. Brooke Rollins, who Trump has tapped to be secretary of agriculture, and Lee Zeldin, Trump’s nominee to be EPA administrator, separately revealed they were also targeted.
Threats were also made against Trump’s Labor Secretary nominee, GOP Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, and former Trump attorney general nominee Matt Gaetz’s family.
Homan told Fox News that he is “not going to be intimidated by these people” and “I’m not going to let them silence me.”
“What I’ve learned today I’ll start taking a little more serious.”
Homan added that he believes “we need to have a strong response once we find out is behind all this.”
“It’s illegal to threaten someone’s life. And we need to follow through with that.”
The threats on Tuesday night came mere months after Trump survived two assassination attempts.
Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman contributed to this report
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